TY - JOUR
T1 - Childbearing history and late-life mortality
T2 - The Dubbo study of Australian elderly
AU - Simons, Leon A.
AU - Simons, Judith
AU - Friedlander, Yechiel
AU - Mccallum, John
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - Objective: to examine the association of parity with mortality in later life. Design: a longitudinal, community-based study. Setting: semi-rural town of Dubbo, NSW, Australia.Subjects: a total of 1,571 women and 1,233 men 60 years and older first examined in 1988-89.Outcome measures: all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates analysed over 16-year follow-up. Hazard ratios obtained from proportional hazards models employing conventional predictors, potential confounders and measure of parity. Results: increasing parity in women was weakly associated with overweight, diabetes and hypertension. All-cause mortality fell progressively with increasing parity in women (hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals): childless, 1.00; 1 child, 1.03 (0.75-1.43); 2 children, 0.83 (0.61-1.11); 3 children, 0.80 (0.60-1.08); 4 children, 0.91 (0.66-1.25); 5 children, 0.70 (0.49-1.01); 6+ children, 0.60 (0.43-0.85) (trend for parity P < 0.002). This result was similar whether or not hypertension, diabetes and overweight were included in multivariate models adjusting for social variables and other confounders. The reduction in all-cause mortality was accompanied by a parallel reduction in deaths from cancer and respiratory conditions, while coronary heart disease mortality increased 60-111% in all parous women.Conclusion: there was increased all-cause mortality in later life in childless women, accompanied by reduced mortality as parity increased. Underlying mechanisms are unclear but findings may have public health importance.
AB - Objective: to examine the association of parity with mortality in later life. Design: a longitudinal, community-based study. Setting: semi-rural town of Dubbo, NSW, Australia.Subjects: a total of 1,571 women and 1,233 men 60 years and older first examined in 1988-89.Outcome measures: all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates analysed over 16-year follow-up. Hazard ratios obtained from proportional hazards models employing conventional predictors, potential confounders and measure of parity. Results: increasing parity in women was weakly associated with overweight, diabetes and hypertension. All-cause mortality fell progressively with increasing parity in women (hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals): childless, 1.00; 1 child, 1.03 (0.75-1.43); 2 children, 0.83 (0.61-1.11); 3 children, 0.80 (0.60-1.08); 4 children, 0.91 (0.66-1.25); 5 children, 0.70 (0.49-1.01); 6+ children, 0.60 (0.43-0.85) (trend for parity P < 0.002). This result was similar whether or not hypertension, diabetes and overweight were included in multivariate models adjusting for social variables and other confounders. The reduction in all-cause mortality was accompanied by a parallel reduction in deaths from cancer and respiratory conditions, while coronary heart disease mortality increased 60-111% in all parous women.Conclusion: there was increased all-cause mortality in later life in childless women, accompanied by reduced mortality as parity increased. Underlying mechanisms are unclear but findings may have public health importance.
KW - Childbearing
KW - Cohort study
KW - Later-life mortality
KW - Parity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864019431&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/ageing/afs016
DO - 10.1093/ageing/afs016
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C2 - 22459707
AN - SCOPUS:84864019431
SN - 0002-0729
VL - 41
SP - 523
EP - 528
JO - Age and Ageing
JF - Age and Ageing
IS - 4
M1 - afs016
ER -